Karen's Arachnophobia

Today's offering is by LegatoGelato's other business partner, Karen Fouracre.
Karen has been my best friend since high school - she wanted to add to the blog.
Here's her first posting. Any comments????
Warnimg - there are photos of spiders in this story.
Jaki

I’m Over my Arachnophobia… almost.

 

I use to be very arachnophobic until I started living on a farm.  So I guess that whole “exposure” method has some merit.  It used to be that when I would unexpectedly see a spider up close I would get that whole startle response, gasp of breath, heart rate shoots up spring of fear.  And it WAS irrational. I knew there was no reason to be that afraid of something sitting quietly still, not interested in me and making absolutely no threatening moves.  After about 3 or 4 years living with trees and bushes and outbuildings all over and constantly walking through cobwebs (which I use to have nightmares about) and not finding myself covered in spiders, I slowly got over it.  It just became a hazard of walking around or a really good substitute for a hair net as those webs are amazingly strong.

Going through the raspberry patch, with canes averaging 7 feet tall, it was impossible to come out without some of those teeny tiny spiders lowering themselves from my bangs or the brim of my hat.  Now I just catch the end of their little web with my finger and attach them to something else.

We routinely get a jumping spider living on the walls and ceiling of the kitchen.  His name is Reggie.  He hangs around for a couple of months and then disappears again. I find naming them helps.  Now it’s a pet.  We make sure we shoo him off the stove top if we’re going to use it. (photo off the web) (Hah!)

We also have black widow spiders living in the basement. They’ve been there since we moved in 17 years ago.  I have never had a problem with them as they prefer quite out-of-the-way places, they move slowly and are very territorial which means I’m not going to find other spiders in their area.  I always wear gloves when dealing with firewood and am careful lifting things that have been sitting around for a while, which in the basement can mean years.  And we have an arrangement, they can stay in the unfinished side of the basement but if they show up anywhere else in the house I vacuum them up.  And you can tell the second you put your hand in a black widow spider web because it’s about twice as strong as any other web you’ll encounter.  I remove my hand very quickly but by then the spider is already hiding.   I know where to look for them but they’re still hard to find.

 

Now I find if I climb a ladder in the fall when dozens of the fat-bodied, short legged spiders with the brown stripes are making their fantastic webs, and I come nose to back, I can actually admire how pretty they are and how amazing their webs are and not fall off the ladder in my haste to descend.  Think about producing all that silk from their own bodies and then constructing those fantastic patterns.  Or the really optimistic ones that manage to string a web right across the drive way to try to catch the truck.  I don’t even clear the webs out of the milking parlour in the summer now because I’d rather have them catching the dammed flies and mosquitoes and no-seeums.  They do it much better than I do and all we seem to catch with those sticky fly strips is chickens.  It’s darn good goo - removes a lot of feathers when you have to pull them off.

 So I’m almost over my arachnophobia with one very distinct exception.  Wolf spiders.  Now wolf spiders are all leg, fast, sneaky and BIG.  They are all over our area in the fall and like to come in the house.  They crawl up drains and down pipes.   (Note from Jaki: They are called House Spiders)

One evening Mom put Susan and I in the bath together, and we were splashing away. After a while I think we need more water so I turn on the tap and a wolf spider washes out of the spout and into our tub.  Evacuate—evacuate.  Is it any wonder I’m afraid of the dammed things?  How did it get in the faucet when the tub had already been filled?

 When my youngest sister was about 2 years old she was very bad and was sent to her room just across the hall from the kitchen.  She was holding onto the edge of her crib and weeping, she’s always had a theatrical streak, when suddenly the whole tone of her crying changed to something more like terror.  We all go running and frozen in terror, dead center in the bedroom door way as a massive wolf spider.  (I’m not sure if they were all really huge or I just remember them that way.) Anyway, Mom to the rescue with a broom and then Cathy gets a cuddle and allowed out of her chamber of torture.  That evening she gets the “Lil’ Lamb” side of the bib with the picture of the lamb until I can switch it to “Lil’ Stinker” side with the picture of the skunk.

 

Then where was the summer morning at the lake when we’re drying dishes after breakfast and Susan feels a tickle on throat and brushes it and a big wolf spider that has just climbed out of her shirt falls to the floor.  Screaming ensues with some interesting dance steps. 10 min. later the neighbour comes over.  He feels something in his pants and slaps the top of his inner thigh and a big wolf spider falls out the bottom of his jeans.  More interesting dance steps and we learned some new words.

 

My friend and I lived in a rented house for a couple of years that was built into the side of a hill and the wold spiders would be in the sink and tub in the bathroom every morning.  Our cat was in heaven and we’d let her in the bathroom 10 minutes before we went in so she could clear the place out and have her breakfast. 
 

One afternoon in this same house I went into my room and laydown on the bed to read.  I’d been there about 30 seconds when I looked up and right above me on the wall was this huge wolf spider.  I ran screaming from the room.  It must have been 3 inches across the legs (looked like 5 from my angle) and how could I not have seen it before I got on the bed?  Answer, they’re sneaky and it sneakyed up on me. They enjoy jumping out and saying boo.

 

Staying at my parents one summer when they were at the lake, I was in the downstairs bedroom, just off the laundry room where the basement door is.  I’m lying in bed in the evening reading and I feel this weight on my foot.  I look down and this wolf spider has crawled on to the bed.  It’s so big it HAD weight.  I screamed, kicked (you’ll see a trend here), it goes flying I don’t know where.  I sleep upstairs.

Next morning when I walk into the laundry room there are 17, count em, 17 wolf spiders on the walls, floor and ceiling of the laundry room.  I found an old can of Raid in the kitchen cupboard and sprayed everywhere, shut the door and stayed upstairs.  Who really needs a toothbrush anyway? The basement door now has weather stripping. Thanks Dad.

 (plus 15 buddies!!!!)

Then there’s the numerous times when I’ve been trapped standing on the couch because of some wolf spider strolling through the livingroom.  These ones really show off the speed of 8 on the floor.  The ideal way to get rid of a spider is from as far away as possible, but when throwing shoes and newspapers from the couch only gives them an obstacle course you have to resort to Superman leaps to get to the vacuum cleaner. What did people do before this wonderful invention?  And when you finally snake the end up to it and it gets sucked in you still have to live through that horrible clunk as  flies past your hand and up the tube.  I leave the suction on for a few more minutes just to make sure it doesn’t crawl out again.

 

About 3 summers ago, Jaki was away at the fairs so I was trying out her wonderful new mattress.  I was sitting reading and I notice some motion out of the corner of my eye.  I look over and a young (slightly smaller) wolf spider is climbing into bed with me. So that’s why they’re called wolf spiders. Ah ha.  I scream, hit it with my book,  I don’t know where it goes so I flee down the hall while chastising the cats for not having killed it when I saw it climbing the basement stairs earlier in the day and sleep in my bed.  Next morning I have to apologize to the cats because there’s a dead one on the basement stairs too. Never did get to sleep on the new mattress.

 

So while I don’t like waking through spider webs and I wouldn’t have a tarantula as a pet, I no longer have that instant fear reaction to spiders any more - except for the wolf spider. I also have 4 cats now.  People think it’s because I like cats.